December 29th

1. Upcoming School Contact Status
There are no Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts planned at this time. The ARISS team expects scheduling to resume the first week of the New Year.

2. Canadian Web Site Promotes ARISS
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Canadian delegate has been working to promote the ARISS program. In doing so, a new Web page has been developed by the Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club which provides information on amateur radio and the ARISS program. To view the site, go to: http://www.ovmrc.on.ca and select "ARISS" at the bottom of the left hand side menu.

December 27th

Some U.S. forces in Iraq will get the chance during the holidays to talk with two NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station who also are far away from their families and friends. A 20-minute live video downlink will start at 8 a.m. CST on Dec. 29. The event will be carried live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's Web site.

Station Commander Jeff Williams, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer, an Army colonel, will talk with U.S. forces while orbiting 220 miles above Earth. Service members will have the chance to talk with the astronauts about life on the station, their military careers and what it is like to live in space for up to six months.

December 26th

Christmas comes twice to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station this year as the multi-nation crew celebrates the traditional Dec. 25 holiday as well as Russian Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7.

Current station commander Jeff Williams of NASA is leading a crew of five, including Russian cosmonauts Maxim Suraev and Oleg Kotov, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, and American spaceflyer Timothy "T.J." Creamer.

Kotov, Noguchi and Creamer arrived just recently, docking at the station aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft on Tuesday.

December 23rd

Three new spaceflyers arrived at the International Space Station Tuesday wearing Christmas hats and bearing holiday cheer.

NASA astronaut Timothy (T.J.) Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi launched Sunday, and arrived at the space laboratory at 5:48 p.m. EDT (2248 GMT), and opened the hatches between the two craft at 7:30 p.m. EST (0030 GMT Wednesday).

Kotov floated onto the station wearing a red Santa hat and carrying a small Christmas tree, while Noguchi floated in after him in a matching hat, with a white sack of presents hung over his shoulder. Creamer wore an elf hat (complete with pointy ears) and elf shoes.

December 22nd

The French space agency (CNES) and ESA have signed an agreement that paves the way for the launch of a high-accuracy atomic clock to be attached to the outside of the European Columbus laboratory onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The PHARAO (Projet d'Horloge Atomique par Refroidissement d'Atomes en Orbite) atomic clock, which will be combined with another atomic clock, the Space Hydrogen Maser (SHM), to form ESA's Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES), will have an accuracy of 1x10-16, corresponding to a time error of about one second over 300 million years.

This new generation of atomic clocks in space will be instrumental in enabling accurate testing of Einstein's theory of general relativity. In addition, it will contribute to the accuracy and long-term stability of global timescales, such as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). A dedicated microwave link will send the timing signal to the ground.

NASA has informed AMSAT that the schedule of work for EVAs at the International Space Station is being revised. The planned deployment of ARISSat-1 from the ISS is now being scheduled for either Fall 2010 or early 2011 rather than Spring 2010.

This schedule adjustment also impacts when ARISSat-1 will be flown to the Space Station with upload likely to take place sometime in Summer 2010 rather than in January.

These revisions were made in response to new higher priority work that must be done during the timeframe of the EVA that ARISSat-1 was originally scheduled in April 2010.

Overall, this revision helps ARISSat-1 because it provides additional time for testing of the spacecraft. Furthermore, it also ensures that the NASA Safety Review process for ARISSat-1 can be concluded prior to shipment of the spacecraft to Russia.

The three Soyuz crew members are scheduled to dock with their new home at 4:58 p.m., Tuesday. They will join Expedition 22 crew members Jeff Williams, a NASA astronaut and the station commander, and Max Suraev, a Russian cosmonaut and station flight engineer, aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The station's five residents have some busy months ahead. Kotov and Suraev will conduct a planned spacewalk in January from the Pirs airlock, part of the station's Russian segment. Less than a week later, Williams and Suraev will fly the Soyuz spacecraft that brought them to the station from its current location on the end of the outpost's Zvezda service module to the new Poisk module. In February, the crew will welcome a Progress unmanned resupply ship and space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission. Endeavour and its crew will deliver the new Tranquility node and its cupola, one of the last major portions of the station to be installed.

Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the final module of the U.S. portion of the International Space Station on the STS-130 mission, now targeted to launch Feb. 7. NASA will preview this mission during a series of news briefings Friday, Jan. 15, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA Television and the agency's Web site will broadcast the briefings live. Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations.

Endeavour's flight will begin the final year of space shuttle operations. Five shuttle missions are planned in 2010, with the final flight currently targeted for launch in September.

Season's greetings will be offered by International Space Station Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Max Suraev in a special video message airing this week on NASA Television and the NASA Web site.

The greetings are part of the daily NASA Video File beginning at noon EST weekdays. For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit:

December 19th

A Russian cosmonaut doctor, a veteran Japanese astronaut and a rookie American spaceflyer are poised to blast off Sunday for the International Space Station.

The three spaceflyers are slated to launch Dec. 20 at 4:51 p.m. EDT (2151 GMT) on the Russian Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will spend about two days catching up to the space station, where they plan to dock Tuesday.

The trio will join space station Expedition 22 commander Jeff Williams, a NASA astronaut, and flight engineer Maxim Suraev, a Russian cosmonaut, onboard the station. Williams and Suraev have been in space since October, and have been the only two people aboard the orbiting laboratory since Dec. 1.